ALANA'S MISTAKE ✔

Chapter 12

Alana jumped forward and grabbed the t-shirt out of her husband's hand.

'Woah,' he said, looking surprised.

She laughed nervously.

'Sorry, it's just - that t-shirt needs to be washed, it's all icky.'

She clutched it in both her hands. Noah gave her a mock scornful look.

'My princess, my expensive princess has been shopping again...'

'Yes!' she said. 'I've been shopping. What can I say? You caught me.'

She gave a feeble smile and told herself silently to lie better in future, if she ever had to.

'I thought we said we'd put shopping on hold for a few weeks?'

'It's just a t-shirt, Noah!'

Since she had begun her studies they had been watching their money carefully. Tuition fees were expensive and it meant she had no time to work. All they had was Noah's income from his job as an engineer.

'Sorry,' she said. 'I didn't mean to snap. I just, desperately needed a t-shirt, I picked it up yesterday. I won't do it again.'

His face melted into an affectionate smile and he pulled her towards him, tucking her into his chest, locking her there where it was warm and safe. She breathed in his smell: fresh air and forests.

The t-shirt sat in her arms, tucked between them until she remembered it and drew back, determined to get rid of it as soon as possible. She felt a surge of disgust towards it and wished she could burn it to ashes but of course, that would be silly. Instead, she sidled out of the kitchen and stuffed the t-shirt in her bag as Noah tasted the cupcake mixture in the kitchen.

Snow was uncontrollably giggling. By the time Alana got back to the kitchen Noah's nose was covered in the mixture and he was licking it off his fingers.

'Delicious,' he said. 'Will go great with a cup of coffee and a movie afternoon.'

Snow nodded vigorously, in total agreement with her dad. She was a blossoming movie buff too and knew scary amounts about kids movies. Noah did too, he happily watched them all with her. He had been known to sit through Little Mermaid, Frozen and Minions in one afternoon.

As she giggled at the two of them and began directing Snow to put the mixture in the cases, she caught sight of her phone which sat on the sideboard, light up and vibrate. She glanced at it and saw an unknown number.

'Who's that?' said Noah.

She snatched the phone and held onto it as it continued to vibrate.

'No idea,' she replied.

'Aren't you going to answer it?'

She shook her head.

'No, they'll leave a message if it's anyone important.'

The phone kept on vibrating, loudly in her hand. Go away. She slipped it into her pocket and tried to ignore it but you could still hear the vibrations. She went over to help put the cupcakes in the oven and it stopped, finally.

But by the time she had taken off her apron and helped Snow to take off hers, the phone had started again. Noah looked at her questioningly. She whipped it out of her pocket.

'I'll go and see who it is,' she said, hastily.

'Why don't you stay here?' said Noah as she dashed out of the room.

She didn't answer, she just went to their bedroom, laid down on the bed and looked at the screen. It stopped vibrating, then there was nothing for a while, then sure enough the answer phone message symbol flashed up. She held the phone up to her ear to listen.

'Hi, Alana, listen, it's me - Elias.'

She let out a sigh and put her hand to her forehead.

'I can't get our night out of my head. Can you? I mean, can you just forget it just like that? Forget me? You really want to run along back to your husband after that? It was real Alana. More real than either of us could have known before.

'That kind of feeling, it doesn't just come around... it's special Alana. Just stop ignoring it, ok? Just stop ignoring it. Stop ignoring me!'

He took in a long breath.

'Sorry, look, just meet me. We need to talk. All I ask is that, it's not so much, right? I won't tell your husband... you can trust me, Alana. Let's arrange a place, you chose where, and the time. Just please. Meet me.'

The message ended there. This guy is not giving up. She threw her phone to the side and lay back on the bed. How do I end this? How do I get this to stop?